AFRICA UNION

6TH CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN MINISTERS FOR PUBLIC/CIVIL SERVICE

IDENTIFICATION OF SERVICE CHAMPIONS AND DISTRIBUTION OF THEMATIC AREAS

Revised 28th August 2009

Background The Bureau in its last meeting1 adopted the Concept of Service Championships including definition of roles and responsibilities of service champions. Service championship is a delivery mechanism through which a cluster of countries commit to work collectively on a given thematic area with the aim of spearheading implementation of programme activities including show-casing best practices and driving their approaches to benchmark levels thus providing leadership to the continent. Coordination of each of the cluster of countries is to be achieved by means of a rotational championship by a selected country as a lead champion. champion may be assisted by two co-champions. The overall objective for initiating the concept of service championship in the Ministers Programme is to broaden ownership and ensure political buy-in across the continent by the Member States. The other objectives include enhancing participation by Member States at the continental level, while at the same time, facilitating domestication of the Programme at the regional and national level. The lead

The idea of Service Championship was born out of the necessity to energize Programme implementation processes, enhance accountability, and to decentralize the implementation of thematic areas in the Programme by ensuring that as many countries as possible participate in the Programme activities. Service champions make a decisive contribution to Programme implementation by promoting innovation, building support, overcoming resistance, and ensuring that the area of work they champion is effectively implemented.

As service champions are strategically located in the institutional set up of the Ministers Programme they can provide support in determining needs and identifying core skills required in specific areas of programme implementation.

1st Extended Bureau Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya from 22nd-23rd May, 2009.

In order to achieve the overall objective of broadening and enhancing participation across the continent, each thematic area will be supported by a lead service champion, two service co-champions, and selected stakeholders. The Member States who are already championing certain thematic areas have been designated as lead champions in their respective thematic areas.2 A co-champion can belong to several clusters in which it would have a forum to give its own unique experience. Increasing the number of service champions will provide modalities for broadening participation, domesticating programme implementation at the national level and sharing of information on best practices.

This approach is not only expected to ensure institutional memory and continuity of Programme implementation but also to provide a safeguard measure in the event a service champion withdraws from a thematic area. Responsibilities of Service Champions The service champions will be expected to exhibit and showcase their achievements, challenges and lessons learnt in the course of implementation of programme activities. These responsibilities will be implemented in close collaboration and consultation with the Chairpersons office.

(a) The core functions of service champions in conjunction with the Chairpersons office and African Union Commission (AUC) are as follows:(i) (ii) Provide leadership for a specific thematic area; Develop a Plan of Action for implementing of respective thematic areas; (iii) (iv) (v)
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Develop a marketing strategy for the respective thematic area; Devise strategies and mechanisms for implementation; Develop a budget;

Recommendation adopted by the 1st Bureau Meeting at 3 (iii) of the Bureau Report

(vi) (vii) (viii) (ix) (x)

Mobilize resources; Develop a programme for exchange and information sharing; Documentation of programme activities across the continent; Identify and partner in a collaborative manner with co-champions in the implementation of respective thematic areas; and Other necessary incidental activities to support the Ministers Programme.

(b)

Service champions are expected to prepare and submit progress reports to the Chairperson, periodic reports to the Bureau, and final reports to the Conference of Ministers.

(c)

In carrying out these responsibilities, the service champions are expected to: (i) Lead in the implementation of the programme in their respective thematic area; and (ii) Seek information and support from the Chairperson and the Ministerial Bureau to facilitate their work.

Adopted Thematic Areas The following thematic areas were adopted by the Bureau Meeting3. 1. Africa Public Service Day. 2. African Public Service Charter. 3. Innovations and Awards. 4. Public Sector anti-corruption. 5. Human Resource Planning, Development and Management. 6. Management and Leadership Development. 7. Policy and architecture of human resources. 8. ICTs as an enabler for service delivery in Public Service. 9. Organizational Development. 10. Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development.
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Thematic areas were adopted by the last meeting of the Bureau. The thematic areas are derived from the Long Term Strategy and on-going activities from the 5th Conference. These were collapsed into ten thematic areas during the Service Champions meeting held in Nairobi from 14th-15th August, 2009 to ease implementation and avoid duplication as the areas are closely related.

11. Performance Management and Measurement. 12. Monitoring and Evaluating Performance in Public Service. DISTRIBUTION OF SERVICE CHAMPIONS ACROSS THE CONTINENT No. Thematic Areas East Africa 1 Africa Public Service Day 2 Africa Charter on Values and Principles of Public Service and Administration 3 All Africa Public Service Innovation and Awards 4 Information Communication Technology 5 Human Resource Planning and Policy Architecture4 6 Management and leadership Development 7 Africa Public South Africa-C Kenya-CC MozambiqueCC Algeria (C) MozambiqueCC Egypt-C NigeriaCC S. Africa-CC Mauritius-C Algeria-C Tanzania-C Central Africa Southern Africa Namibia-CC North Africa West Africa

This thematic area was collapsed during the Service Champions meeting held in Nairobi from 14th-15th August, 2009 to incorporate the Policy and Architecture of Human Resource.

Service Capacity Development 8 Performance Management and Measurement including Monitoring and Evaluation in Performance5 9 Post conflict Reconstruction and Development 10 Public-Sector Anti-Corruption Kenya-C NigeriaC Burundi-C Tanzania-CC Kenya-C Nigeria (CC)

Key C - Lead champion CC - Co-champion Champions Distribution Summary 1. Total lead champions - 10 where: Current lead champions Lead champions required

9 1

NB: A lead champion is required for the thematic of Area of Management and Leadership Development 2. Total co-champions where: Current co-champions Co-champions required at least
5

9 11

This thematic area was collapsed during the Service Champions meeting held in Nairobi from 14th-15th August, 2009 to incorporate the Monitoring and Evaluation performance in Public Service delivery thematic area. This in effect reduced the thematic areas from the initial 12 to 10.

3. Total Number of Lead and Co-champions is 10 countries6. These countries include: (a) Lead Champions 1. Tanzania 2. Algeria x 27 3. Mauritius 4. Egypt 5. South Africa 6. Kenya 7. Burundi 8. Nigeria Co-champions 1. Namibia 2. South Africa 3. Mozambique 4. Nigeria 5. Kenya 6. Tanzania

(b)

Recommendations In order to give impetus to the Programme implementation, each Bureau Member should take lead in championing a thematic area. Further, Member States should identify thematic areas to champion or co-champion so as to enhance regional participation. For thematic areas which are not taken up, the Chairperson will dialogue with member countries to take leadership in these areas. This paper was adopted during the Special Bureau Meeting8.

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The number is ten because some countries are Lead and Co-champions concurrently. Algeria is championing two thematic areas simultaneously. 8 The Special Bureau meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 18th June, 2009